Attorney David Rapoport of Rapoport Weisberg & Sims P.C. in Chicago was honored to be the first presenter in the new Lunch and Learn webinar series hosted by the Injury Board.
During the webinar, titled “You Wouldn’t Use a Doctor Who Wasn’t Board Certified, Would You? The Importance of Board Certification in the Legal Profession,” Mr. Rapoport, National Board of Trial Advocacy President (and IB member), explained the importance of national board certification for attorneys. The National Board of Trial Advocacy is the oldest and largest American Bar Association accredited trial lawyer specialty certification board.
Similar to the medical profession in which the body of knowledge is so large that it’s impossible for one doctor to remain current in all specialty areas, the body of law has grown so large and complex that attorneys can no longer be all things to all people.
Enter the idea of legal specialization. Unlike the medical profession, which has embraced specialization and specialty certification, the legal arena has been slow to acknowledge publicly what it has known for years: Nearly all lawyers specialize but do so without substantiation beyond “reputation” or simply saying it is so.
With less than 4 percent of all practicing lawyers certified by an ABA-accredited or state-sponsored certification body, board certification is not only highly important to the profession of law, but also paramount to consumers. This small, but highly esteemed, group of lawyers provides the knowledge and a confidence consumers should expect and require in an attorney.
